By Lucy Hamilton 3D Laser Scanning • AR/MR • Construction • • • 0 Comments

CASE STUDY: Technology for a ‘get it right, first time, every time’ ethos

Download a PDF of the case study here

Walsh Steel Detailing has invested in Trimble 3D Laser Scanning and Mixed Reality technologies as part of a process that both vastly improves their site/office workflow and ensures that there will be no surprises for their clients or team when an intricate project goes to site.

“If we didn’t have this technology, we simply couldn’t do the work we are doing. We are market leaders for two reasons, our people and the technology that we have invested in.”

Damian Walsh, Managing Director, WSD

Established in 2017, Walsh Steel Detailing Ltd was the result of founder Damian Walsh spotting an under resourced area of the market that he felt could be well serviced by his steel industry knowledge, contacts and interest in technology. Aware that there was a shortage of steel detailers in Ireland and that there would be good take-up  for a company that could provide an ‘on-demand’ service to smaller fabricators, he therefore launched Walsh Steel Detailing.

Based in Co Mayo, the new company would focus on meeting the needs of those fabricators that often found themselves unable to tender for works because they did not have the capability to produce drawings to the required level or were unable to justify the costs of a full-time draftsperson and relevant software. The aim of WSD would be to offer advice early in the detailing process backed up by extreme attention to detail and a ‘get it right first time, every time’, ethos to ensure that there would be no surprises when a complex project went to site.

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By Lucy Hamilton AR/MR • Case Study • Construction • Digital Construction • • 0 Comments

CASE STUDY: ‘Reduce waste and increase certainty’

How Laing O’Rourke is using augmented reality for construction through their adoption of Trimble’s Connect AR app

Download a PDF of the case study here.

“We have been able to put the detailed 3D models in the hands of site supervisions, operatives, steel fixers, construction managers and more. The result is a better-connected team, increased understanding, and complete end to end digital delivery.”

Antony Bromley, Project Digital Lead, Laing O’Rourke

Augmented Reality has seen a boom in recent years with take up across a range of diverse sectors from entertainment and interior design to manufacturing and medical training. As the technology becomes easier to use, AR is making a profound difference to the way we work. The construction industry is now experiencing its own digital revolution and 3D representations of projects and BIM models are now commonplace, bringing with them the means to easily visualise the graphical representation of the model and data that exists within it, reducing error and uncertainty. Read more

By Lucy Hamilton Construction • Construction Robotics • Uncategorised • • • 0 Comments

PRESS RELEASE: The School of Civil Engineering and the Built Environment, at Liverpool John Moores University, leads the way with ‘robot dog’ investment.

LJMU is the first university in Europe to acquire Spot and the 3D Laser Scanner with software as a package and plans to use its £150k investment for teaching and research.

Engineers at LJMU have gone out and bought a dog!

It’s four-legged and likes a little walk but ‘Spot’ won’t be barking or looking for cuddles because it’s a robot dog designed for all terrains and ideal for construction and civil engineering surveys.

Supplied and adapted by BuildingPoint UK and Ireland (the construction arm of Liverpool based mapping and surveying equipment specialists, KOREC), the robot dog has been developed by American robotics company, Boston Dynamics, in conjunction with Trimble who are the manufacturers of Spot’s 3D Laser Scanner payload. The end result is an agile, fully autonomous, four-legged robot that can be used to enter buildings which are unsafe for humans or to survey building projects as they progress.

The robot dog can either undertake fully autonomous pre-programmed missions or can even be operated remotely and controlled off-site. Both options will ensure that Spot is a perfect fit for survey requirements in hazardous conditions or for carrying out repetitive survey tasks, freeing up a skilled surveyor to work elsewhere.

Sam Hough, BuildingPoint UK and Ireland Business Manager, said: Read more

By Lucy Hamilton Construction • Construction Robotics • Digital Construction • • • 0 Comments

Success at the 2022 Construction Computing Awards

The 10th November saw the winners of the 2022 Construction Computing Awards announced at the Leonardo Royal Hotel in London City. Over 200 guests gathered to see the outcome of the readers’ online voting and the judging panel’s deliberations.

And of course BuildingPoint UK Ireland was right in the thick of it!

Sam Hough (Business Manager) and Abel Varela Abelleira (Senior Applications Engineer) were delighted to be guests on the Trimble table which saw four awards picked up during the evening including a joint effort with Building Point UK and Ireland!

🏆 Best use of Digital Technology in a Construction Project: Trimble Buildings with Boston Dynamics Spot Robot at BAM Nuttall Ltd with BuildingPoint UK and Ireland.
You can read all about BAM Nuttall and Spot here.

The newly established BuildingPoint UK and Ireland team was also runner-up in Team of the Year 2022 reflecting the great work they’ve done in this short space of time.

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By Lucy Hamilton AR/MR • • • 0 Comments

The value of synchronised construction in delivering projects

It’s been great to see technological advances within construction over the last decade or so, with BIM software in particular having become a central part of the industry. However, software is in many ways just a part of the story, with digital hardware also having a critical and valuable role to play in helping deliver projects safely, efficiently and productively.

Building Point UK and Ireland’s Sam Hough was delighted to team up with Trimble Technical Manager, Steve Jackson, to put together this informative piece that’s just been featured on the Trimble Tekla website and also by New Civil Engineer.

Synchronised construction

When it comes to synchronised construction, digital hardware can be the second piece of the jigsaw, helping to take the 3D model from the drawing office to the site. All too often, companies will invest time, money and resources in building a constructible 3D model, packed full of information and project-rich data. And yet, when it comes to setting out and building the structure on site, this same data will be reduced into a mere A1 page 2D drawing or General Arrangement plan. With this at odds with the data-rich 3D model, it’s clear that you’re inevitably going to lose some value along the way.

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By Lucy Hamilton Events • • • 0 Comments

BP on the road – warming up with Trimble Viewpoint!

Time never stands still and neither does the newly established BuildingPoint UK and Ireland team! We may only have been around for a few weeks with our new name but we’re already preparing to go out on the road with our own series of launch events featuring a free day of product demonstrations, customer testimonials, networking and a chance to get hands-on with the full BP range of digital solutions.

But as with all great shows, a warmup event is always an excellent idea, so last week we were delighted to be a part of the Trimble Viewpoint EMEA Summit at Tower Hotel in London.

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By Lucy Hamilton Construction • Digital Construction • Trimble FieldPoints • 0 Comments

“The Future of…” Series 3 – Setting Out (Digitally!)

This is the third in our series of “The Future of…” posts where we’ve been looking at trends within the construction industry. We’ve already covered ‘Augmented and Mixed Reality’, and ‘Construction Robotics’, so where next? Well, I did mention that I may mix up Trend 3 due to popular demand so here goes….

In this post we’ll be looking at the move away from paper, or more specifically, taking a closer look at  the future of ‘Digital Setting Out’. What better way to start than with two fitting quotes, one is from 50 years ago, the other I heard just recently!

“The most dangerous phrase in the language is: ‘We’ve always done it this way’.”

Grace Hopper, American computer scientist and US Navy Rear Admiral. (Computer World, 1976)

and…

“Do it once, do it right and your other issues will go away.”

Jamie McCann, Managing Director, AV UNIBRAK. (KOREC case study, 2022)

We get it. Changing from what you’ve always done can be scary, but when we have such feature rich constructible models using our state-of-the-art software in the office, why, when we attend sites, do our site operatives work from GA plans printed on A0 paper?

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By Lucy Hamilton Construction • Construction Robotics • • 0 Comments

“The Future of…” Series 2 – Construction Robotics

During the summer we launched our BuildingPoint UK and Ireland ‘The Future Of….’ Series looking at key trends in digital construction and we decided there was nowhere better to kick off than with Augmented and Mixed Reality – technology that’s truly transforming the way we work!

The second trend that we’ve decided to take a look at is Construction Robots and the nature of ‘true autonomy’.

“An autonomous robot is a robot that acts without recourse to human control” is the official definition. Short and to the point, it’s an easy one to understand.

However, since the introduction of Trimble’s Spot the Dog we’ve realised that our customers and colleagues have plenty more to say on the subject! Spot is a four-legged robot developed by American robotics company Boston Dynamics that’s armed with Trimble’s X7 3D laser scanner and Trimble FieldLink software to collect data while navigating challenging, dynamic and potentially unsafe environments… and it’s certainly had lots of media interest.

Opinions that matter!

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By Lucy Hamilton AR/MR • Construction • • • • • • 0 Comments

“The future of…” Series 1 – Mixed Reality/Augmented Reality in construction

During the summer we launched our BuildingPoint UK and Ireland ‘The Future Of….’ Series looking at key trends in digital construction and we decided there was nowhere better to kick off than with Augmented and Mixed Reality – technology that’s truly transforming the way we work!

AR and MR – where are we now?

AR/MR might be regarded as ‘the new kid on the block’ but a quick visit to a TV news report back in 1997 on Trimble shows that this technology has been over 20 years in the making! Development is now continuing apace and in particular, recent software advances are engaging a wider variety of users.

Whilst the current geospatial market for AR/MR is still relatively low, primary research indicates that the construction market will see a 44% increase in the number of AR devices used in 2023 alone.

Here at KOREC, our experiences indicate that whilst initial take up has indeed been slowish, end users love the idea of AR/MR, but it’s only when they adopt it into their workflow that they realise how beneficial it can be to their business.

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By Lucy Hamilton 3D Laser Scanning • Case Study • Construction • • • 0 Comments

BuildingPoint UK and Ireland Case Study: From paper plans to pointclouds – purposeful innovation

How Hillcrest Structural was able to reduce labour and plant costs, increase accuracy and save time by switching from tapes and dumpy levels to point clouds and robotic measurement.

Download the PDF here

On site with the Trimble RTS773

Based in Fareham, Hampshire, Hillcrest Structural is a steel contractor specialising in the design, supply, fabrication and erection of structural steel and ancillary systems throughout the UK. The company has its own in-house design division, production facilities and site team, a set up that enables it to offer a complete solution to its clients as well as a range of useful cross department experiences for employees.

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